Canon in D
by teja kirana
Summary: Johann Pachelbel was undeniably a musical genius. But this is not a story of what a genius Pachelbel is by composing the ultimate heartwarming musical piece, this is a story about friendship and family, possibly love too and the instrumental song— just happened to have impeccable timing, and how Cisco met a girl became interesting for Team Flash.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters that will be mentioned in this fanfiction, be it based on DC comics or others. I may have written this fiction loosely based on a few fictions I have read here, you will know yours when you read them—all in all, I own nothing, thus will be the disclaimer for the next and upcoming chapters (if any). Oh, and this happens post season 2 finale, minus the part Barry go mess-up the timeline because I don't want to get too technical. Oh so anyways, enjoy!**

Johann Pachelbel was undeniably a musical genius. His arrangement for the infamous Pachelbel's Canon in D was, and still is treasured by many throughout the globe. It has not only been a symbol of joyous celebration of the union of two hearts and soul in holy matrimony but also a somber celebration for some when finally getting long awaited closure. The miracle of arrangement did not just capture the right amount of sentiment but perfectly resonated a somewhat dearth tranquility—a sensation unbelievably close to serendipity. But this is not a story of what a genius Pachelbel is by composing the ultimate heartwarming musical piece, neither is this a story of how he did us all a favor by coming up with the piece. Oh, no, but this is a story about friendship and family, possibly love too and the instrumental song— just happened to have impeccable timing.

…

It was a rather fine day at STAR Labs, with nothing to narrate on, seriously. Caitlin and Cisco finally got their chance to do exactly what they initially signed up to do when they first recruited. Joe, Barry and Iris still figuring out a way to cope with everything that had happened all at once, meaning a rather detached week for the three of them from the lab. Wally, for a change in the West household is the only sane being to be up and running his not-so-ordinary routine, but that was probably because he had more catching up to do on the whole 'everything happened all at once' part. In a nutshell, it was a really boring day at STAR Labs until the second Cisco decided he was going to do Caitlin a favor and drop by Jitters to get them coffees. At least, that was when things started to get interesting.

Why? Firstly it was because a few minutes after Cisco went out, Iris came crumbling uncharacteristically to Caitlin about Barry and her love life, and not to be confused as a single issue since Barry and Iris had finally talked about whatever it was between them and settled on a resolution, these are two separate issues.

"I know, he needs time to cope with this—whatever he's feeling, and I know I told him that I will wait for him as he waited for me to be open about us. I just need another perspective on this, other than Barry's and mine." she started by dumping her handbag on an empty slot on the table and slumping into an empty seat, without question grabbing Caitlin's full attention.

"Good morning." Caitlin offered considering she was not so sure how she was supposed to be reacting around Iris when she was being uncharacteristic. Caitlin did not meant to be rude, but she and Iris were not exactly Barry and Cisco or Barry and Iris or even Joe and Wally for the matter of fact. They were just plainly Caitlin and Iris, the only things they shared in common were Barry and their instinct of keeping their city and loved ones safe. "What did Joe said?" she added since it was only logic that asking for Joe's advice is the right thing Iris should be doing rather than blurting her burden to someone who was equally emotionally drained like Dr. Caitlin Snow.

The question was replied by another uncharacteristic groan. "You know, I've got this feeling for a while. The feeling that my world and my life revolved around mostly men. I mean, I have friends, female friends, and they are great."

"But you can't help noticing the major influences in your life revolves around men." Caitlin offered her habit of completing someone else's sentences to Iris, receiving an approving nod. "I see." she said. "Well, you know, as a doctor, there's a few things I could suggest to you for your predicament." she quipped, putting down her pen and setting aside her notes to move closer to Iris. "Whatever you thought you should be doing about Barry's coping with whatever he is dealing with right now, it's yours to decide either to do it or not. As an acquaintance or friend to both you and Barry, I'd say, if you do believe in destiny, in all of the signs sent that you two were meant to be together, in your love, if you believe in them, give him the time and support he needs." her hands found Iris' and held them tightly in assurance.

Iris felt her lips quivered as she fought back her tears of exasperation for how closely similar the advice is to her father's and a hint of desperation for needing a woman's company for a change in the midst of men-chaos happening in her life right now. "Do you think there's any chance for us to have some bonding time, just us girls?" she asked.

Caitlin gave Iris a smile that never had she realized that Caitlin had a smile that could brighten up any room up to this moment. "I thought you'd never ask." she said as she reached for her purse and sifted through it. "As a matter of fact, Cisco did say once that I didn't have a life, and you are from what I've gathered from the past, a rather fun person to be in company with, so why not?" she offered Iris her name card. "Besides, something tells me you are a really good friend." she shot her a smile that leaked a single tear from Iris.

…

Secondly, Cisco met a girl at Jitters that he took a liking while waiting for his turn and really fighting his nerves because the last time he felt this way to a barista, that person happened to have an ancient warrior persona who already have a soulmate. When will he ever find his soulmate is a question he, himself feared to ponder, he just rather concentrate on not being turned into Reverb instead. Nonetheless, excuse him for being so nervous when his turn came up and all he wanted to do was to be swallowed by the floor beneath him, but the weirdest thing happened to him, his anxiety that was threatening to end his life a few seconds ago was gone, he was still nervous, but it was not as bad as before.

"May I take your order?" Cisco glanced at her tag that said 'Rhen'. This time around, he had no problem telling her his order and at least he did not go full retard on her even though he was dangerously close on going there. As soon as she turned her back on him, the life threatening anxiety came back rushing into his system and he swore he was close to revisit his episode of epilepsy until she returned with his order. Just like that, like before, whatever he was experiencing, the moment was gone. She casted him a customary smile before handing him the coffees.

That was when the next interesting thing happened, or how Cisco met a girl became interesting. He was right feeling nervous about this girl, not for the same reason as Kendra, no, he did not saw her sprouting wings from her back. What he saw was this Rhen, whoever she is, she was dressed beautifully and was playing a violin accompanied by a pianist, and that too, was being done beautifully. Cisco gave her an awkward smile in return because he can never really understand how his vibe thing worked exactly. Little did he know he was going to find out what his vision meant. There was one thing Cisco knew for sure, he was going to have to expect some STAR Labs-worthy stuffs from Rhen.

The next time Cisco saw Rhen was when his brother insisted him to attend the recitals he claimed to be his breakthrough in being a pianist. It turned out the pianist who was going to accompany her was his own brother. True enough, she did look stunning with the knee length black dress adorned with glitters that made her seemed as though veiled by the starry night sky and she looked even more stunning when she played the note on her violin. Why Dante had never insisted him on going to his recitals before, even to gloat? If this was the beauty he was to experience, he was willing to sit through it all. Well, honestly, maybe not all of them, just the part where she is concerned.

"Cisco!" Dante hollered at him from afar when the recitals ended, gesturing him towards the backstage. "Since you are so willing to be here and sit through my awesomeness, I'm inviting you to the celebratory party and the after party following it." Sheer excitement showed effortlessly in his tone and Cisco was already scheming various incidences for emergency exit but faltered when Dante added, "Come on. Meet my beautiful and talented partner, Rhen."

"He only says that because I play a very different but conveniently complementing instrument from and for him, and that tonight was a huge success. Usually he'll introduce me as his sister in musical performance, leaving both of the beautiful and talented part altogether," she laughed heartily as she turned her look from his brother to him. "Have we met before somewhere? Your face seems familiar, but you know, these past days I can only remember so much with this kind of event on my plate." she asked pointedly to him.

"You two have met? Oh good, then I'll leave you two be to catch up what's need to be caught up. I think that's a bunch of music producers over there that I simply have to approach." Dante cut through as he began to rush over some seemingly wealthy people. "We're still on, right, by the way?" he stopped for a while and shot a knowing look at Rhen.

"Of course." Rhen casted Dante the customary smile Cisco knew from their previous encounter. "Back to the topic, have we met?" Rhen returned her attention to Cisco.

"Yeah, once at Jitters. I was the dork with the awkward stare and awkward smile at the end of our encounter." he told her to jog her memory. That comment, however demeaning it was actually, got him another hearty laugh from Rhen that Cisco grew to like and he was not sure if was supposed to be liking it or not, but he decided to let his future self to decide that for him.

"Hey, those are one third of my customers you're talking about." she replied when her laugh died down. "But yeah, I remember you from Jitters." she added before a silence fell between them for a moment. "Oh, but Dante hadn't introduced us to each other. I mean, it's not fair that you know my name. I just know you as _that dude I met over the counter at Jitters_." she quipped.

Cisco could not believe his luck. This pretty lady here is smooth with her talk that it tantalizes his awkwardness, and he was not going to deny that part one bit. Then, a few moments later his guard went up because the last time he met a smooth talking girl, she happened to be a sister to a crook and a crook herself. Sure, she flirted with him back and forth, but that girl was toxic. "I'm Cisco Ramon."

"Ramon. Related?" she inquired.

"Brothers." he nodded.

"Pleasure." she held out her hand and that was when the next how Cisco met a girl became interesting happened. _Awesome._

…


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

If last week had been a solid boring day at STAR Labs, well, this week had not. For a start, Cisco's metahumans alert software had caused a major issue that he, himself could not fathom. One second the Labs was blaring the metahuman alert, the next it went down on full silent mode. He had checked again and again for any malfunctions in every possible ways only to find out that his _pride and joy_ is supposed to be up and running like his _pride and joy_ should. The only problem; it did not, henceforth putting this week on Cisco's least favorable week at work despite of it not being boring.

"You still haven't figured it out yet?" Barry asked as he flashed in from yet another destination he was supposed to go to. Cisco gave him an exasperated groan as he threw his notes across the room. "Sorry," he muttered to Barry.

"I have a theory. What if—this is quite a long shot and big 'What If', but what if there's something out there stopped the metahumans before we have the chance to send you the signal to stop the metahumans?" Caitlin swung her chair over to face them, finally caving in to an idea she did not quite like.

"You mean like another speedster?"

"Team Flash 2.0?" he lifted up his head and his eyes are beginning to sparkle like he did whenever he was about to get excited about something. "That actually make sense, but at the same time it doesn't." he started. "I mean, how on earth did they get awesome stuffs like ours? I mean, it's not like you've seen these babies up on the sales on _E-bay_ , and they're faster than we are?"

"You think they're from another Earth?" Barry questioned, frowning at the thought of what else might come along from yet another Earth.

"I—yeah, no. But we closed the breaches. That can't be it." he countered.

"Have you considered psychokinesis?" Caitlin suggested slowly like she was not confident of the possibility herself. "I say this because we have to consider all possibilities of the metahumans that we might be facing." she explained. "If they can stop metahumans faster than Barry can run to do what he always does, who knows what else they are capable of? We don't know if they are a friend or a foe." she said.

"Caitlin Snow, you are a genius. Let me just go check to see if there's any pattern we can track. Then, we might get something going on from there." Cisco clapped his hands after brushing off the chills of hearing Caitlin's cold tone at the end of her perfectly productive reasoning. No later than that, Cisco made his way to his spot to get started on cracking the case.

"Hey, you're alright?" Barry asked as he smoothed over Caitlin's desk. He heard the cold tone in her voice too, and he was sure Caitlin was still recovering from everything that had happened to her. To be honest, he was amazed by how strong Caitlin is, given by what she had been through. A little part of him felt ashamed for behaving the way he did when he snapped back when they had to deal with Zoom. It was expected of him and Caitlin had never mentioned it ever since, none of his friends did, but he felt ashamed nonetheless, especially towards Caitlin. So he was not going to deny her the right of having a friend when he sense there was something not right going on in Caitlin's life that she was trying to hide and was failing miserably.

"Yeah. Why did you ask?"

"You just went Killer Frost back there." he stated, earning himself a glare from her. "And you're doing that biting your lower lip thing." he added quickly.

"Well, you know how people with psychokinetic ability can make people do things?" she asked as her brows furrowing closer. When he nodded, she continued, "Well, that was not all that they can do. I've been crunching possibilities for a while and I am hoping that my expectations are wrong. Terribly wrong."

"Don't worry. We're gonna be ready the next time there's a metahuman alert and we're going bring in this psychokinetic. Whoever they may be." he assured her. "But that wasn't the thing that's bothering you, is it?" he began and when she looked away to escape his concerned, yet scrutinizing look, she had affirmed his assumptions. "Cait, you don't have to bear this alone."

That earned him a look that he did not understand. If he had not known Caitlin any better, he would have said it was a look of pity and sympathy, but he did know Caitlin, better now than ever, she was not one for giving pitiful look when someone least needed it. "I'm worried for you." she managed to prove him wrong, yet again. "Our team's different now with Harry's departure, but don't get me wrong, it's not like I didn't have faith in Cisco because I do, I have never doubted him," her voice trailed when she saw Cisco coming into the cortex with a proud look on his face. "What I'm trying to say is, we have limited manpower, but the metas we'll be facing, who knows how many of them are affected and uncontained out there. Be extra careful, please." she said in a tone so heart-wrenching it gave a tug on Barry's previously invincible confidence for a second.

"I will." he said, giving her one last squeeze of her hand before turning his attention to Cisco. "Okay, Cisco, show us what you came up with." Barry hoped silently that Caitlin's overbearing worries for him was a normal thing that he did not noticed before, (even if he did, he had casually brushed it off and chose to ignore it) and not a result of her and Iris' spending time together. He will never get the hang of a girl and her habits, and it was going to beat him forever to figure out what two girls spending time and developing synchronized habits would be. He already noticed some changes in Iris for the past few days after their night out, she had been in a good mood, almost as good as when he had first woke up from coma. _Maybe Caitlin and Iris bonding over as friends isn't a bad thing._

"Alright, you're not gonna believe this, but they all came from the same source. Remember that day that we had three alerts and then a quiet two days of work without alerts?" he asked enthusiastically.

"Yeah, you were throwing stuffs around at the board and impersonating Harry those two days, how could we forget?" Barry and Caitlin laughed but stopped when Cisco about to retort, signaling him to continue.

"Right, all from the same location. Then, these are from two days ago. The location has been moved, but check this out," he pointed at the map.

"They came from the same location." Barry muttered.

"And this," he pointed at a red mark on the map he printed, "This is from earlier today. My bet is when the next alert comes, it's gonna be coming from here." he said with a smug grin on his face. "What do you say?"

"Let's go get 'em."

…

"It's a coffee shop!" Cisco whined as soon as they arrived on the address he had copied from the map. "How come it's a coffee shop?"

"Are you sure you copied the right address?" Caitlin asked she was about to make her way enter the premise when she saw Cisco was not budging from his spot. _Where is Barry and why do I get to babysit big man-baby Cisco?_ She thought to herself before mentally berated herself.

"Of course I copied it right. It's an address, not some sort of Harry's or Well's theorems." he huffed indignantly at her.

"Go check if there's anything out of place on that building. Maybe this coffee shop isn't really a coffee shop. Work your magic." she suggested while making magician's hand gestures to him. "Barry, are you in place?" she asked over the PA.

"Oh, yeah. You know, times like this made me feel like it wouldn't hurt to have x-ray vision." he joked.

"No, you wouldn't want that, man. I mean, really, here?" Cisco butted in. "No, man, no. Nope. I'm not letting you." he shook his head as he rolled his eyes and let out another whine. "The place's clean. The coffee shop is just a coffee shop."

"All right," Caitlin ran her hands and fingers smoothly over her feature before getting out of the car.

"What was that for?" Cisco asked when he was out of the car too.

"I'm a lady about to walk into a coffee shop. I have to make sure that I look presentable." she retorted, earning a small chuckle from the end of the line.

"Whatever you say, lady." Cisco raised his hand in defeat only to cast her a horrific look in attempt to apologize. "Man, no, I'm sorry, that came out wrong. Saying it like that out lout made you…"

"Cisco, stop." Caitlin help up her hand in front of him in a manner of _talk to my hand_ , swung open the door and stepped into the coffee shop. "Tell Barry immediately when you get vibe on the metahuman, or if your app goes off here." she looked around. "I'll get us our orders, you go on and get us some place to sit." she told him.

"Ooh, thank you. Can you get me something with foam?"

"I think the only thing without foams here are espressos, Cisco, but yeah, sure, whatever you say." Caitlin smiled and walked over to the counter, leaving Cisco alone in the middle of ridiculously spacious coffee house to find seats.

Granted that Jitters was a more popular place to get coffee, this place was pretty empty, however nicely decorated it was. Cisco was scanning the room for empty seats when his eyes caught on something very familiar. It was like he was not even trying when his feet dragged him over to the very table for four. "Hi." he greeted, startling the other person. "I'm sorry." he apologized quickly. _How come I am always this dorky around girls that I find attractive?_

"Oh, hi. No, no, no. It's okay. My mind was—somewhere else." she said.

"It's nice to see a familiar face in here. Are these seats empty?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, they are. Please, have a seat." she replied as she gathered her things from the table to make room for the new company. "Aren't you getting orders?" she asked him when she saw nothing with him.

"I'm here with a friend, she's getting our orders." he explained. "Oh man, did that just sound like I was on a date and I ditched her to go talk to another girl?" he asked nervously and that laugh he had not heard for a while came again.

"Yeah, yeah, it did." she said. "You are quite lucky I am in a good mood today and you're a familiar face, normally that'll come out as plain creepy." she told him.

"Seriously, though, I think my friend is mad at me because I accidentally implied that she's an old lady and doesn't want to talk to me for a while, so she sent me to find us seats." he explained, well, more like stuttered nervously.

"Ouch." a low chuckle got out from her. "So, let me take a stab and say, this is your first time here and you didn't like it?"

He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Well, unless your friend who is coming over here is usually irrational, which I can tell that she is not, then it must've been you whining her ears off that ticked her," she shot him a gleeful look as she smiled to greet Caitlin, "Hi, I'm Rhen, and you must be Cisco's friend."

Caitlin shot Cisco an impressed look before settling on a seat opposite him. "I'm Caitlin Snow. Cisco's colleague and friend, to be accurate."

"I told you, you ticked her off." she shook her head in amusement.

"It was accidental!" he exclaimed in defense.

"Then, apologize." she said in mock defense.

"Okay, you're right, I'm sorry. Caitlin, I'm sorry for the lady comment came out the wrong way and I'm sorry for being a big man-baby you have to babysit." Cisco said.

Caitlin was beyond astonished now seeing Cisco, who pretty much have not so much regrets in his life apologized to her and it was not his mother or grandmother who had made him do so. What was pretty surprising was he was not doing it begrudgingly, sure, his apologize lacked sincerity, but it was not forced either. Who was this girl?

"Rhen used to pair up with my brother in their recitals." Cisco explained.

"Still is." she corrected him. "We met backstage after the recitals last week. Actually, that wasn't the first time we met, the first time we met was at Jitters. I have a part time job there." she added to Caitlin. "So, you're working at STAR Labs, right?" she asked, in which Caitlin shot Cisco a questioning look.

"My brother told her most of the things that I do." Cisco started to blush.

"Most? Your brother tells me everything. He actually couldn't shut up about you." she quipped and Cisco's blush deepened.

"Have you been in a—" Caitlin's question was being cut off by Rhen's quick reply.

"Oh, no. That never happened. That bridge was burned before the bridge was even built."

"He got very drunk one night and he called her Cisco, admitting his pride in me because he thought her hair was like mine that night." Cisco explained.

"It seems like your brother does not despises you as much as you think he does, Cisco." Caitlin commented. She was about to make further fun of Cisco when his the alert came out of the sudden and then died out.

"What was that?" Rhen asked.

"That, is our cue to get back to work." Cisco smiled apologetically as he grabbed his coffee and got up.

"Nice meeting you, Rhen." Caitlin smiled and she was replied by a departing wave and walked to catch up with Cisco. "Barry, did you get anything?" she asked to the lurking speedster.

"Yeah, I do, but I'm not sure if you're gonna like it." he said.

"What did you get?"

"Cisco, I'm gonna need you vibe on that place. For confirmation." Barry said with a hint of urgency in his tone.

"But I don't even know if—"

"Cisco, now!" if previous request had staggered Cisco, well this time it sure had Cisco ran for his life back to the place, grabbing the handle of the entrance door desperately for his power to work, and when it did, he could not believe what he saw.

"I could really use your help back at STAR Labs, there's this thing we have coming up and we really could use your help, so, if you please," he blurted after all the steps he has taken slowly to muster up his courage and arranged his words like Caitlin would.

"Oh, is it urgent?"

"Yes, it is." he replied half excitedly, half nervously.

"Okay, well, lead the way."

"Barry, we're bringing her in. Wait for us at STAR Labs." Caitlin said as soon as she saw Cisco made his way over the car with Rhen. "Barry?" she contemplated the pros and cons of exposure of something delicate by bringing this apparently metahuman into STAR Labs without a properly thought-out plan.

"Yeah?"

"Nevermind." Perhaps worrying is not the best thing right now.

.

 **A/N: Comments and criticism are most welcomed. I apologize for any confusion and errors made, and sorry Iris was not in this chapter (although I'd like to focus on Snowest friendship). Prompts are most welcomed too.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I noticed a few minor mistakes on the last chapter and I'll get it fixed real soon, sorry about that. Hm, other than that, I own nothing from this TV show.**

"Where are you going?" Barry asked as he heard Iris' _how many inches are they_ heels clucking against the floorboard over while he was setting up the video game for his game night later with Wally and Cisco. He tried getting Joe into joining them because they thought it would be awesome if all the dudes were there to let off some steam once in a while but Joe was having none of that and picked _scouting for some possible cases_ over them. Three dudes playing video games for the entire night worked just fine for them.

"You have your Dudes Night. I have my Ladies Night." she smirked when Barry tossed her a feigned disgusted look.

"Nobody calls it the Dudes Night," he told her.

"What do you call it then? Game night?" she asked as she picked a paper to leave the rest of the family a note.

"No, Game Night would be the night we'll play games all night long." he said. "We didn't call it anything."

"Yeah, isn't that what you guys always do, anyway? Playing games all night long and eat pizzas and take outs?" she snickered as she was done writing the note walked towards the door. "See ya later, Barry." she waved as she opened the door, "That is, if you're still here by the time I get home if I do get home tonight." she added and received a semi-nonchalant wave from Barry. _Boys and their games._

…

"Oh, the lobsters here are ridiculous!" Caitlin tried to keep her excitement down to _fancy dinner restaurant_ mode. "Thank you, Iris for thinking of that one and putting it on the list." she said while raising her glass to Iris.

"Don't thank me yet, there's still a lot more we have to do before the night is over." she raised her glass to meet with Caitlin's nonetheless. "You know the next on the list isn't that interesting as _eating at the place you've always wanted to try but never got the chance to because you've never seemed to find the right reason to_. Wow, that's a long description for something to go on a list." she said.

"Yes, but next one will be challenging, so it should be fun because I would most probably get so intoxicated that I would do stupid things that I will be embarrassed of if anyone brought it up the next day." she beamed at Iris as she was starting on her dessert.

"Look at you, Caitlin Snow. Who knew you're such a fun person to be around with outside of work."

"I'm not always a geneticist." she said. "And I do have a life, so thank you Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon for not making sense at all." she rolled her eyes and Iris laughed while struggling to keep her _fancy dinner restaurant_ in check.

"Don't worry about them, they're probably living a life of some out stationed soldiers, street racers and maybe something of mythical warriors as for tonight." her body shook slightly with the laughter as she recalled the previous encounter she had by walking on them playing some RPG that looked nothing like Halo as they claimed they would be playing earlier that day. It turned out they jumped from game to game on Game Night.

"So, where is this next place at?" Iris asked Caitlin, looking at the list they had made together the last time they went out together. "Skate Valley? Are we going ice skating?" she raised her eyebrow and started to question her judgement on why had she ever agreed to let this to be on the list.

"We're going ice skating! We're going to do that." she nodded as they were walking towards the car.

"In dresses?" Iris asked to reconfirm.

"We're wearing knee length dresses." she said when she sensed Iris was recoiling from what could possibly be a fun night. "Besides, the place is really lame and we're supposed to make it fun. I say we'll just try and then we'll just never go back to the place ever again." she reasoned.

"Fair point. Now, let's get going before I change my mind." Iris ushered Caitlin into the car.

Their trip to the skating ring was by all means out of ordinary. For a start, the place was almost seemed forsaken with scarcely any people on the skating room and that made them by far the two most attractive person to walk into and skated in the ring that night. There was not many people there but it had been fun, given that both of them were doing pretty fair as ice skaters. Once in a while, Iris would call out to Caitlin from her end of the ring and made some inside jokes about the breezy air rushing past her and the Flash and Caitlin would laughed as she glided over to Iris to mock the ever so often _run, Barry, run_ moment, and Iris would skate at her top speed.

"It wasn't much. This place used to be really cool when I came here as a kid." Caitlin told her as they walked out from the Skate Valley.

"Are you being serious? I had fun, this much fun!" she reached her hand for the sky to indicate the fun she had been having. "I gotta say, I'm impressed." she added.

"I had fun, too." Caitlin admitted. "Now, let's go have fun like any other normal working adults in their twenties would."

"Oh, yes. Lets!"

They did exactly that. Caitlin and Iris walked into a bar that they have never been to before and neither of them thought at the moment they walked into the place that they would be having some surprises. Caitlin, for one, was surprised to see that she had let herself walked into a karaoke bar once more and on Iris part, she had started a tab. Silently, Caitlin was hoping that she would not have to wake up with a serious hang over issue.

"Okay, Snow. Let's catch up with what's going on in our lives. You tell me something I don't know and I drink, but if I already know it, you drink. Vice versa." Iris said when she came back to their table with both of their drinks.

"Here it goes." she took a deep breath as she searched through her mind what she should tell Iris first. "Oh, I got one. Cisco met a girl," and Iris drank.

"Scott asked me out, or I think he asked me out," Iris said and that had stunned Caitlin.

"What did you say?" she asked, leaning forward the table in interest.

"Hey, drink." Iris pointed at the glass in Caitlin's hand.

"I told him I'll think about it." Iris said and Caitlin nodded in understanding.

"I know you'd say that, honey, you'd have to drink." she smiled sweetly.

"Ooh, cold to the core." Iris raised her glass in a mock of a gentleman tipping his hat to another gentleman. "What about you? Do you have any dirt that I could dig and make you drunk the next time we play this game?" she quizzed.

"Hm, I think our Movie Night is getting into my head." she said, earning the same reaction from Iris as she had given her a while ago.

"Honey, I knew that and you'd have to drink." she copied Caitlin's same tone. She was about to tell about the story she is currently working on but she stopped since Caitlin would probably knew about it already since it was related to her field of expertise, so she asked a question following to Caitlin's statement instead. "Barry was right, you do that biting your lower lip thing when something's bothering you. Does it have anything to do with Movie Night?"

"No, I was overthinking the movie at work, and I as much as I just want it to be just me being the overthinking me, my random theory based on a movie was proven." she told filled Iris the whole length of the story, alternating between chugging down drinks and telling stories was not easy, if she had not known that before, she knew it now. By the end of the story, both Iris and Caitlin was pretty drunk. Iris was drunkenly walking, or maybe staggering towards the jukebox to start a dance off with Caitlin when Caitlin pulled her by the arm to stand close by her. "Shh, look over there." she pointed over the counter where a girl around their age was waiting for her drink. "That's the girl. Cisco met her at Jitters once. Do you know her?" she told Iris.

"No, is she new? I've never seen her around before." Iris asked Caitlin. When Caitlin shrugged, it was Iris' turn to whisper into Caitlin's ears. "Why don't we just ask her?" she suggested, already making her way towards the counter. "Hey, I'm Iris and this is Caitlin. She is pretty drunk right now." she chirped to the girl.

"Yes, I am drunk right now, but I can still make a good conversation out of this one." Caitlin was struggling to keep herself from losing her balance and quickly settle on a stool. "This is Rhen and we met through Cisco." she turned to Caitlin.

"Hey, Caitlin, fancy to see you here." Rhen said as took her drink. "Are you girls on a night out or something?" she said as referring to both Caitlin and Iris' drunken state. That was pretty much what both of them remember of that night.

The next morning both Caitlin and Iris woke up on a couch in an unfamiliar room across each other, staring at each other questioningly before looking around the room to figure out whose apartment did they crashed into and what exactly they had been doing to get there.

"Oh, you're up. The breakfast is ready if you want to join in." Rhen said when she walked out from the kitchen. "I'm sorry you had to crash on the couch, my room isn't exactly a room at the moment, I'd still have to fix that stupid ceiling after my friend came over and rammed his sword through it. I don't know how he'd even get into my room." she explained. "The bathroom is over there, by the way." she pointed to them.

"Oh no, that's fine. I'm afraid we're the ones who are sorry to bother you. I can't remember anything from last night." Iris said as she made her way to the bathroom.

"Uhm, me too." Caitlin groaned.

"Bother me? Please, that was the best night I've spent in that bar. You managed to start a sing-along concert, the only thing was that I wasn't drunk enough to bring down my violin or that would have been some heck of a night." she laughed as she hummed Dancing Queen on her way back into the kitchen.

"Oh, god. That I do remember." she shuffled into the bathroom as Iris got out and walked to the table full of breakfast.

"You live here alone?" she asked Rhen from her seat.

"Don't we all?" came the replied when Rhen came from the kitchen with a jug of coffee in her hand. "I was looking for a roommate, money is getting tight since I have to fix some things around here." she admitted as she spread some butter on her toast. "But I figured, with the rate I'm currently going with both my career and social life, I guess finding one isn't a high priority for me right now." she added.

"Have you asked Cisco?" Iris inquired innocently, resulting in pure shock on Rhen and mortified look on Iris' face as she fought against her slightly lingering hangover with her journalist intuition to come up with a damage control. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you're dating him." she apologized. "I guess that's what happened if you talk about things under alcohol influence. You get the wrong idea." she said.

"I actually get it how you get the idea, it would've been the same without alcohol." Rhen casually took a bite on her toast. "It's inevitable." If her previous comment of the confusion had not gotten Iris' attention, this definitely had.

"Are you implying that if Cisco Ramon had the balls to ask you out, you would go out with him?" she tested her theory.

"I won't be hasty but I'll give him a try." she replied after some time and let out a nervous laugh. "I don't think he's the kind of guy who thinks dating is all that important. I mean, he has a cool job that pays well and some equally dorky friends to keep him company. He's contented to a good life." she reasoned.

"Oh, you'd be surprised when you get to know him." Iris countered as she bit down on her omelet.

"Iris is right, you know. There are things about Cisco that Dante doesn't know. The stuffs that he told his friends but not his family." Caitlin joined them fully dressed, obtaining a look from the other two girls at the table. "What? I have work today. Don't you?" she said to Iris.

"Well, yeah, I do. But it's still early." she retorted as she eyed Caitlin fixed herself some breakfast and started working on it like some tightly scheduled businesswoman. "I like you better when you are not a high school principal." she said jokingly.

"I'm sorry that my work starts early and I have to dress like a school principal to work, but I don't work at a fashion magazine to wear whatever I thought runway-worthy." she said when she took a pause from shredding her breakfast down her _gastrointestinal tract_.

"Nice. You gotta give her credits for the comeback, though," Rhen said to Iris with a gleeful look.

After finishing her breakfast, Caitlin spent some time searching for her keys before exchanging thank you's with both Iris and Rhen and headed for the door. "Well, this is fun, us girls hanging out together. Shall we do it again sometime?" she asked before walking out.

"I'll leave Iris my card for you to contact." Rhen said before Caitlin left for work.

"Or I could… You know, ask Cisco for your number." Iris teased. Rhen's laughter left Iris dumbfounded because she was expecting Rhen to be blushing furiously and what have you like those girls would in cheesy young adult romance novel. "Iris, Cisco doesn't have my number." she said.

" _Oy_." That explained everything.

…

"I'm three minutes late and I'm still the first one to arrive? Unbelievable." Caitlin said to herself in the hallowed lab and reached for her white coat. That was when the gust of wind passed her by.

"Caitlin. You're not gonna believe what I'm about to tell you." Barry panted.

"Try me."


End file.
